Monday, 15 October 2012

Easy clothes, t shirts with wrap around skirt

How mini can a mini-wardrobe be? 4 garments to make 3 outfits is possibly wardrobing failure.
I made 3 t- shirts and a wrap around skirt to wear in uber casual situations eg: at home, or, as it turned out, during our camping/driving trip.

These were easy to sew, easy to wear, and will be very useful. Bread and butter sewing, not even cake. Fortunately for my wardrobing mania, I have several other skirts that extend the wearing possiblities of these t shirts.

SleevelessT shirt 1, to the left is from OOP Vogue 2925, from brown cotton-lycra knit (Stretchtex). It is an exact replacement of 2 previous iterations of this pattern in this fabric that I have worn out. I find these dark sleeveless shirts that cover the tip of the shoulder most practical.
The central t shirt is based on Ottobre 02-2011-1.

I have made my usual square shoulder adjustment and raised the neckline to limit sun exposure. The fabric is a dull medium green cotton-lycra knit I bought at the sunday markets a year or so ago (I have never seen fabric there since, sigh) and the t shirt to the right is the same pattern, but widened at the front by 8cm, with the extra fabric pleated to the previous (and raised) neckline. The fabric colour is called military, and is sort of brown and sort of green.

Inside view of pleats

I had thought that adding all the extra fabric to the front would release the folds lateral to the upper bust, but you can see that it did no such thing - back to the FBA at the sideseam.

The skirt, serendipitously containing all these lovely sludgy colours within the fabric embellishment, is made from a sarong length of hand printed Indonesian batik (cotton). This was a present from my Mum (she knows me well) after a trip she took to Bali, where my aunt lives. I have been very lucky in my acquisition of particularly lovely batiks, and they never last long in the stash, as they are so beautifully cool to wear.
I am the wrong shape for a sarong, but find the versatility and rapid drying time of the garment irresistable.
My TNT not-quite-a-sarong is from Style 2642, OOP.

I have been making it every 2 years or so for over a decade now and am pretty sure there is nothing stylish about it.
I add an extra dart at the back, and extend the waistband to make ties, rather than using buttons per the pattern. I particularly like the width of the over/under lap - all the way to the side seams, keeping it unsually modest for a wrap around skirt even in windy situations. The A line shape is so practical that allows brisk walking and even gardening!
Here it is on location.

15 comments:

Love the shaping of the sleeveless top. In my world, never can have too many tees! The skirt reminds me of an old favorite RTW skirt that I wore for years and years. It was constructed as a double layer - sheer over opaque in a crepey-poly-chiffon. I found it remarkably versatile.

These "easy clothes" look like something out of a style shoot - they are such beautiful tones & look pristinely made (if that is even a sewing turn of phrase!) And that they are so easy to wear....I can appreciate that

What a lovely miniwardrobe - beautiful earthy colours . All the Ts have quite different shapes but go so well with the skirt - I esp like the shaping of the sleeveless T - I can see why you have sewn this now three times .